| Summary: | Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2020 As the Arctic sea ice extent decreases due to global climate change, new commercial shipping routes are opening through the Arctic. All of these routes connect the Arctic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean through the Bering Strait, a bottleneck region between Alaska and Russia. This same Strait is important habitat for cetaceans, including cetaceans migrating to northern feeding grounds, and cetaceans that remain in the Arctic region year-round. The overlap between shipping routes and cetacean habitat indicates an increased probability of a ship striking a cetacean and an increase in underwater noise pollution from the ships. A risk analysis was conducted for cetacean species, analyzing the risk posed by ship strike and ship noise as a function of exposure and vulnerability, with vulnerability being assessed as a combination of the resilience of the cetacean populations, and the potential threat posed by the ships. The analysis found the highest levels of risk to be among the humpback whale and North Pacific right whale populations in the Bering Strait region, although there remain high levels of uncertainty regarding both the rates of future ship traffic and the knowledge of the cetacean abundance and distribution in the region. The results were used to evaluate potential solutions to mitigate future ship strike rates and vessel noise in the region, including marine spatial planning, vessel actions, new technologies, and increased monitoring capabilities. Given the remoteness of the Bering Strait region and the successes and failures of these solutions in other parts of the world, the most effective solution are likely a combination of several solutions, requiring cooperation to implement from the United States, Russia, and the international community.
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